Drawing on the Past

This is a drawing done in pastel on paper that is taken from an old photo. It shows my mom as a teenager, standing in the field at her home farm holding what I think is a kitten. The photo is old, black and white and small so was quite a challenge to try and interpret. I like it tho' as the whole process of doing it was like a meditation on a part of a parents life that a child can never really know--their youth. The way she's holding this little creature made me think of how much it symbolized the final grasp of innocence before circumstances in life threaten to grab it out of our hands. So hang on tight!

Life's A Journey

I had a request to post this picture in a larger format. It's the one I use for my profile photo.  It is a self-portrait, done in oils, on 3ft x 4ft canvas. I still have not done the final varnish so colour, albeit very grey, may show more interest once that gets done. I painted it ( last winter) because it was an image that just get rolling over in my mind... so  had to get it out and onto canvas. The picture seems a little squeezed. Something to do with the formatting process and digital camera operator (me!).

Isn't She Lovely

I painted this a few years ago when I was making the switch to oils from watercolour. A great way to learn is to try and copy an artist you admire. Well, Breughel lived in the 1300's and painted everyday life and people around him as semi-caricatures. I love this woman's face and the reactions I get are often based on the fact that she is not 'pretty' but I see that her face is being transformed by something or someone she's just seen. She's looking up and I think she's been filled with surprise and wonder and in that unguarded moment you catch a glimpse of the beauty within. And that's what art does for me--reveals the God-given beauty in the unnoticed faces and objects in the everyday stuff.